William Alexander Percy
Who is William Alexander Percy
William Alexander Percy (May 14, 1885 – January 21, 1942), was a lawyer, planter, and poet from Greenville, Mississippi. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee (Knopf 1941) became a bestseller. His father LeRoy Percy was the last United States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature. In a largely Protestant state, the younger Percy championed the Roman Catholicism of his French mother.
Life and career
He was born to Camille, a French Catholic, and LeRoy Percy, of the planter class in Mississippi, and grew up in Greenville. His father was elected as US senator in 1910. As an attorney and planter with 20,000 acres under cultivation for cotton, he was very influential at the Episcopal university, The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, a po...
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William Alexander Percy Poems
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William Alexander Percy Quotes
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Comments about William Alexander Percy
- Theeipod: walker percy called his cousin and adoptive father will percy the most extraordinary man he'd ever known. check out this conversation about will's book lanterns on the levee.
- Acrimonyand: behind us a culture lies dying, before us the forces of the unknown industrial world gather for catastrophe.
— william alexander percy
- Gboddicker: the treasures in the donations bin at the william alexander percy library never cease to inspire
- Flaggtaylor4: check out our most recent release, a discussion of a terrific memoir by william alexander percy.
- Flaggtaylor4: william alexander percy, quoting his father: "'i guess a man's job is to make the world a better place to live in, so far as he is able-always remembering the results will be infinitesimal-and to attend to his own soul.' i've found those words direction enough for my life."
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